Alright so I want to be a Hacker, Computer Expert, Computer Guru, and all that other fun stuff. I just got a Laptop, and maybe that's what sparked my sudden interest in computers and Hacking. Now I know most computer specialists and people who love computers use Linux, and so I thought that would be my first step towards learning more about comps.

The only problem is that when I DLed Ubuntu, and selected it from the start-up screen, nothing happened. It said it was loading, and then the screen got all colorful.

That was it though. Linux didn't start. The comp just like froze on me.

Now I have Windows Vista so maybe that has something to do with it, but any kind of help would be greatly appreciated. Oh and where should I start off? Should I learn how to program first? Should learn some hacking basics?

I think there's a problem with your approach - could you give us a bit more information as to your technical ability and background - how experienced are you with computers?

I hope you realise that Linux is an operating system not a program? could you run us through the specific steps you took after you downloaded it? I hope you didn't just doubleclick on the iso? better yet - you may want to try ubuntu forums for installation troubleshooting.

I'm also curious as to what you want to learn - computing is a very wide field and even in computer security there are a number of paths you can go down. there are a number of "get me started" threads on these forums if you'd like to have a read of them and come back with some more specific quetstions.....

Yeah I know Linux is an OS. To tell you the truth I'm not very tech savvy (don't even know if I used that right) and my friend did the installation for me. I'll check out the Ubuntu forums for sure though, I never even knew they had a forum XD

As for what I want to learn? I'm not really sure, however I'd really like to get into programming, hacking, and security. I'm still fairly new and I took a comp course last year studying HTML, but we only learned the basics. Seeing as I'm on the comp all the time, I'd just like to learn some cool stuff and maybe pursue a career involving comps in the future.

If you do want to start learning Linux probably your best bet for now since you admitted you weren't very tech savvy would be to get a Linux distro that you can boot from a CD. That way you can play as much as you want and get familiar with Linux and never have to worry about damaging anything {well unless you get really unlucky }. If you mess something up all you have to do is reboot and start again. I would suggest you go with the Ubuntu distro and burn the ISO onto a CD. You should be able to find lots of information via google to help you do this. If you still can't figure it out your friend may be able to help you. Or just ask here most people of this site are very friendly and will be willing to help you out.

I'd definitely recommend to start out with ubuntu as your learning os for linux, it's the easiest switch from windows. As for programming, hacking, and security you'll need to start with the basics, so first I'd learn the PC hardware inside and out and everything works and how it interacts with the OS at a very low level as well as learning the ins-and-outs in windows and linux. While doing that i'd start looking at learning a programming language, for security I'm trying to become very proficient in C, Java, and Python. There are a ton of different languages to choose from but starting somewhere and mastering that will make learning any others much easier. Once you have those both down well I'd next immerse yourself in networking, learning the concepts and how everything works in data communications. Once you get there you'll have a firm base where you can begin testing with different tools and learn how to hack different devices. That is a very short version of how I would progress and I'm still in the progression myself. I'm sure others will be able to give their opinions as well, good luck!!

BigFoot wrote:Hey is it just me or are these forums not very active? A lot of the dates are pretty old.

I am trying to make them active, I have been posting a bunch here lately. Unfortunately @ work, I get the dreaded "Blocked by Websense". I don't want to break the rules and create a shell account and tunnel around it, but I just might have to..lol

geekyone wrote:It's more active then it first appears. We also have a lot of lurkers.

I'd agree. I also think that the signal:noise ratio is very high. The forums are frequented by a whole bunch of very knowledgable people and everyone generally posts very thoroughly, which eliminates the need for others to follow up with additional information, leading to shortish threads.

I hope it stays this way as much as possible as it becomes more popular.

Thanks guys. It is also very important for all of you to help spread the word and continue to be great EH-Net citizens. Although my opinion is clearly biased, I would put the quality of our threads against any other site as touched on by NickFnord.

I just wanted to say I do like what I've seen here so far, I'm pretty early in my career and trying to break into security. There does seem to be alot of talented people here willing to share their knowledge, and some great resources as well.